Yellowstone National Park - the continuing story

I remember seeing really great muds pots back when I went with my husband's family to Yellowstone.  That was in the Spring of 1999.  So I wanted to share the mud pots with my kids because we had view most of the cool stuff in Yellowstone by this point in the trip.  Of course I am not showing these in the order they were taken.  

I just thought that boiling mud was fascinating for some reason.

This is in the Artist Paint Pots area but these are mud pots not paint pots.

The Artist Paint Pots were pretty and the walk up the side of the mountain was awe inspiring.  It's worth the little walk.  It was lovely to see the colors splashing all over.  Fascinating that there were bright blue, crimson, and chalk white pots while we were there.  You'll learn that the landscape is forever changing in Yellowstone.  Each visit offers something unique.

There are a lot of old dead trees in Yellowstone.  And it's not because of the big devastating fire in the 80's.  No, it's the boiling water.  Once in a while a small earthquake opens a new crack and everything starts to boil and the trees die from the intense heat.  The ground is unstable to you often get to see their roots, which fascinate me, being a gardener and all.  

This is the one I remember from 1999 except that is was more muddy back then.

It was amazing to be driving along and see the beautiful trees and then suddenly steam and a whole bunch of dead spots.  

Animals in the park

Where are your favorite places to vacation?  

What about with children?

Where are their favorite places to vacation?

This time we printed off the Junior Ranger packets for Yellowstone at home so they could fill them out on the drive.   We ended up having to pick up the packets for the Grand Teton park at the visitor center in Moose Junction.

This is a bull moose. Can you tell?  I know, wrong side of the road and sun flare too.  

Moose Junction, Grand Teton National Park

Of course this one is in an enclosure.  It's a grizzly bear who is foraging for food.  We took the kids to West Yellowstone on our way out of the National Park.  They also have two different wolf enclosures. They now have an eagle/hawk/owl enclosure where they care for injured birds.

This is a bison walking up the road in Yellowstone National Park.  He was just plodding along but when we saw him later that day on our way down from Norris toward Old Faithful he was still on the road and had traveled miles.  He had a mission and all the cars on the road were going to just have to slow down and let him by.

This is the second elk we saw and a nice big bull elk too. Tyler made a noise like an elk call and he lifted his head long enough for a photo.

And this was just south of Mammoth Hot Springs.  Lots of elk there. A few small bulls and one spike. These were mostly cows with the bulls off in the trees.

We also saw a beautiful Fox, ravens, hawks, ground squirrels, and two coyotes.